Misconceptions
by ROSSELLA1
Summary: Maverick and Charlie have been  happily married for ten years. However, this year there are females at Top Gun causing Charlie to become paranoid to the point of going through her husband's personal belongings so Maverick enlists the help  of Iceman.
1. Start of Term

Start of Term

BY ROSSELLA1

Note: I do not own Top Gun or any of its characters.

Pete Mitchell groaned and rolled over, burying his head in his pillow as the alarm blared at six in the morning. Charlie stirred next to him. He moved to hit the snooze but she slapped his hand away. "We have to get up." She said. "Classes start today.

"I will get up." He murmured, sleepily. "In five minutes."

"No now!" she replied, slapping his shoulder. Served him right for marrying a morning person. "If you go back to sleep you won't be able to wake up in time." She got up and headed towards the door. In a moment he swung his feet over the side of the bed and went into the bathroom for a shower. Afterwards he dressed and went down to the kitchen. "Good morning!" his wife said, handing him a cup of coffee.

"It's too early for good." He muttered. They finished up breakfast and headed out the door. He still drove his motorcycle and she her car but they stayed together on the road until they got to the school.

"Meet you for lunch." She said, kissing him goodbye, and each headed off to their separate areas.

He got to the room just before he students started to file in and leaned against the back wall next to Viper. "Sir." He said nodding and got a "Commander." back. He knew that now that he was a teacher at Top Gun he could refer to Viper by his call sign but some things never changed. It would just feel… disrespectful.

Everything quieted down as Jester made his way to the front of the crowd and began his annual speech. It had sounded impressive the first time Maverick had heard it but after graduating he had soon come to realize that he used the same one every year and now he just tuned out. Out of boredom he glanced around the room and noticed with some surprise that there were a few females seated here and there. Though it wasn't unheard of for women to go to Top Gun, it was rare. This year should be interesting.


	2. Meetings

Meetings

BY ROSSELLA1

Note: I do not own Top Gun or any of its characters.

The group dispersed for their five minute break and then class. There wouldn't be much to do today. Basically he would just have to go over rules and regulations. He got to his class and turned on his laptop. He'd learned a long time ago that it was easier to just put things up on a projector screen and let the students decide what they needed to copy down. As he was turning to plug the cord in, a young woman hurried into the room and took a seat in the front row.

"Hi!" she said a bit breathlessly. "My name's Michelle Peetree. Fox."

"Hello," he replied smiling and leaning over to shake her hand. "I'm Commander Pete Mitchell, call sign Maverick. Welcome to Top Gun."

"Oh, thank you, sir! I-"The bell rang and the rest of the students filed in and he went back to the screen.

When they had all settled down he began, "Hello, my name is Commander Pete Mitchell, call sign Maverick. Now before I rattle off a long list of boring rules that most people don't listen to anyway why don't we go around the room and introduce ourselves? I'll probably forget you names soon anyway but hey, might as well try." With a small laugh, the students did so and after they were done he began. "Now the most important rule is…" and he went on to explain the long list of rules that half the time people forgot even existed. Before he knew it twelve o'clock had rolled around and it was time for lunch break.

He met Charlie at the Outback and after they had been seated and ordered their food, they started to talk. "So how was your day?" he asked.

"Oh, first days always just a bunch of paperwork. Boring of course, but not too bad. You?"

"Same old, same old. Bunch of young arrogant pilots all thinking they're going to get the trophy." He said taking a swig of beer.

"Hmm…sounds familiar." She said with a smile.

"Hey, I wasn't arrogant, I just knew my own strengths!" He protested.

"Mmhm."

"Oh! There is one interesting thing. There are female pilots this year." He said.

"As in more than one?" she asked narrowing her eyes and he nodded. "Well that's new, usually there's only one per class _at most_."

"Yeah. I know one's named Fox but there are at least three others. Interested to see how they'll do."

"Fox, huh?" she said straightening up. "Why do they call her that?"

"Don't know. Didn't get that far." He said nonchalantly.

"How far did you get?" her face was still smiling but her tone seemed to have something hidden in it.

"Nowhere. She got there first and introduced herself so I remember her. That's it." He said confused as to why she put so much importance by this.

"Oh. "She said relaxing slightly. There was a pause in the conversation and then the waiter brought their food. They thanked him and then dug in.


	3. Jealousy

Jealousy

BY ROSSELLA1

Note: I do not own Top Gun or any of its characters.

The next few days passed quickly. Charlie's original fears seemed to have been washed away, for which Maverick was glad. Even after ten years had gone by he was still completely in love with his wife and never had nor would cheat on her. Especially with a student.

One night, however, they were upstairs in their room, watching TV when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." Charlie said, getting up. He continued watching for a minute or two until he heard, "Ma-ver-ick!". Shit! What had he done? She never enunciated his name like that unless she was pissed. "_Honey_, there's someone here to see you!"

He quickly got up and headed downstairs. Wouldn't do to keep her waiting. "Who is it?" he asked.

"_Fox_ wants to see you." She said, her arms crossed and giving him the look that meant he wasn't going to be getting any. "She's waiting on the front porch."

"Oh." Was all he could say, and he opened the door.

The woman was seated on one of their white wicker chairs looking very out of place and uncomfortable. She leapt up as he came out. "Commander!" she said.

"At ease." He replied. There was a moment's silence as she relaxed. "How is everything?"

"Oh, good, sir. Thank you, sir." She replied. Another pause.

"Is there… a reason you wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Oh, yes!" She said, seizing on the idea. "I was just wondering if you think I have a chance at winning the Top Gun trophy?"

His eyes widened taken aback. "Every pilot who passes through Top Gun has a chance at winning." He hesitated. "You know that."

"I was just wondering since I'm a woman and all if that made-"

"Look, Lieutenant, Top Gun bases things off your scores not your gender and while you may not be in first place you _are_ a pretty good pilot. I'd just keep working on it if I were you."

"Thank you, sir." She said grinning nervously. "I guess I should be going now. Good night." And then she walked off towards her car.

He stood there watching her drive off, still confused as to why she came over, and then went back inside after she had disappeared from sight. Charlie was waiting for him, arms crossed, just inside the door. He got the feeling she had been trying to listen in.

"What was _that_ about?" she snapped.

"I don't know." He said, wondering why she was acting like this. "She wanted to know if she had a shot at winning but I thought there was something else."

"Well she didn't have to come over here to find that out."

"I know that's what so weird."

"Since when did you get so good at profiling?"

"I don't know. Why are you acting like this. She was a student and had a question so she came over and asked, that's all!" Maverick said at loss as to her attitude. Charlie scoffed and stormed off. He hesitated for a bit and then followed her. When he got to the bedroom door it was locked. "Charlie?" he called. "The door's locked." What was going on with her?

"I know." She called back. "I think you should sleep on the couch tonight."

He did a double-take and opened his mouth to protest, then decided against it and headed back down stairs, grabbing an extra pillow from the closet along the way. He really didn't understand what was up with her lately. Maybe she was just PMSing. He laid down on the couch and tried to get some sleep.


	4. Old Friends

Old Friends

BY ROSSELLA1

Note: I do not own Top Gun or any of its characters.

The next day Charlie was already gone when he woke up. He couldn't understand it. Didn't she know he loved her more than anyone else in the world? The classes seemed to go by slowly and few times that he ran into Charlie in the halls her demeanor was cold and she was just barely civil. He tried arranging to go out for lunch, thinking they could talk things over, but she said that she already had plans with a friend so he was surprised when he went home to find her car in the driveway.

He went in to find her sitting at the table, eating a sandwich and reading the mail. "I thought you had plans."

"They changed." She seemed a bit more pleasant but not by much. He grabbed himself a handful of pretzels, sat down, and started flipping through the pile of discarded mail. He found the ones that were addressed to himself, but couldn't help but noticing that most of them were already opened. He glanced up at Charlie, confused. "What?" she asked.

He shook his head, "Nothing." If he asked about them it would just sound like he had something to hide.

She finished her sandwich and then got up. "I'll be upstairs."

About a half hour later Maverick finished his lunch and had flipped through all the channels but nothing was on. He decided to go upstairs and see what Charlie was doing. Maybe she'd be more reasonable now. He climbed the stairs and walked down the hallway to their bedroom. He rounded the door frame and stopped. Charlie was kneeling on the floor in front of his bureau, going through his bottom drawer. For a moment he just stood there, then with a groan he turned around and headed out of the house. He needed a drink.

He'd been at the bar for about fifteen minutes and he was already having serious doubts about his ability to drive home. He was debating whether to give in and call Charlie or to risk riding his bike home when he felt a hand descend on his shoulder and a voice say, "Well, if it isn't Pete Mitchell. Haven't seen you in over a year."

He smiled and turned around, "Hey Ice, how've you been?"

"Oh the usual. Shooting enemy planes out of the air while you sit on your lazy ass and teach a bunch of kids how to fly."

"Hey, if I didn't teach them they'd all end up like you. Too much of a wimp to break the rules even if your life depended on it."

Iceman scoffed, "So what about you? How're you doing?"

"Fine." Mitchell said, tossing another shot to the back of his throat.

"How's Charlie? Heard the two of you got married. Got any kids?"

He winced. "No. Actually I don't know what's got into her."

"What do you mean?" Ice asked, furrowing his brow.

"She's been all moody lately. There're women at Top Gun this year and she's convinced I'm cheating on her."

"Well, are you?"

"Of course not!" Maverick spluttered, then sighed. "Not that she'd believe me though. Today I found her opening my mail and going through my drawers. That's when I decided to come here."

"Damn" Iceman replied, taking a swig of beer. He was silent for a moment, then he smiled. "Think you could use some else?"

Maverick grinned back, "What did you have in mind?"


	5. Phase One

Phase One

BY ROSSELLA1

Note: I do not own Top Gun or any of its characters.

Maverick grinned as he walked into the house and knew by Charlie's face that Phase One had started. "You got some mail today, sweetie." She said, handing him the letters with a thin-lipped smile.

"Did I?" he answered and hurriedly sifted through the letters until he got to the one without a return address. This one was already opened but he pretended not to notice and took the letter out to read.

Dear Maverick,

I miss you so much and can't wait for next week. I hope that we can do everything we've dreamt of doing. Yes… even that thing. Just to clarify, it's 3:00 pm, Tuesday at 51 Maple St. right?,

It was signed simply with a heart.

Perfect. Just enough to catch Charlie's eye. He felt sort of guilty about causing her suspicion but their marriage wouldn't last if she kept being paranoid and snooping around no matter how much he protested to having an affair.

"So," she said, clearly attempting to be casual. "Who's the one letter from? You know the one with no return address?"

"Oh," he faked nervousness, looking down at the table. "Just a friend I'm meeting up with next week."

"I see." She said and looked at him hard. After a moment she got up. "I'll be upstairs."

"Okay." He said. He heard her run up the stairs and rummaging around, not bothering to keep quiet. Grinning he took out his phone and dialed Ice's number. "Ice?"

"Did it work?"

"I think so."

"Good, time for Phase two."


End file.
